Worcester County, MD Hawks

Besides the photos of the American Bald Eagles some of my favorite photos taken this year in 2008 were those of the Red-shoulder Hawk. This story began in the month of May when I was shown by my neighbors Susan and Herbie Watson the hawk’s nest located in a pine tree in the side of their yard. There were two adults and in the nest just hatched 3 chicks.

For the next 8 weeks or so I would make way to their yard and photograph the nest and the action. As you can see they are in various photos of feeding and growing. Finally you will see them mature enough were they are ready or have been flying. On these photos I used a D200 and a 80-400mm telephoto lens.

After this series of photos there come Thanksgiving Day 2008 when as I was taking out trash I saw a hawk in the field across the road from my home. I went back in the house to grab my camera and worked my way toward the hawk. It didn’t seem like I was bothering him at all. So after as few shots he flew off a bit. So I went back to my trash duty I saw that he had returned to the same spot. So I grabbed my camera again and made my approach to him quietly and quickly. I was able to get within 20-25 feet of it again. I was real nervous getting this close and with a long lens handheld I messed up quite a few shots. One other thing that ruined some of the shots was the stalk of weed that was in front of the beautiful bird. On these photos I used a Nikon D300, 300mm f/4 lens, and a TC 17 II.